Hi. I’m from Alberta, Canada. I decided to go to Ireland to study medicine after doing Biology at Queens University in Canada for a couple years. I am currently attending University College Dublin in my first year of medicine. My goal is to study medicine in the United States…. at this point (with my limited knowledge and experience) I am wanting to do Internal Medicine.

I’ve enjoyed my first year so far and I’m doing quite well but I’ve had a HUGE PROBLEM with picking an appropriate textbook and study method for physiology and most of my subjects in general. I want to do well on the USMLE step 1’s so I want to study the same textbooks as students at US medical schools and gear my studying towards the type of material they are studying. I already know what books I’ll need when Im actually studying for the USMLE’s (Board review series, First Aid etc.) but I want to study in a way that will prepare me best for them now. I don’t like the idea of using my lecture notes as my main study source and supplementing here and there with a textbook because I don’t feel that it would prepare me well for the USMLE’s. Also, I have always liked studying out of textbooks and have never liked lecture notes. I only like to use them to get an idea of what to read out of the textbook. Especially since many of my professors give poor notes that are unorganized and disjointed.

I was hoping someone going to a foreign medical school like me could let me know if they have come across the same problem and what textbooks they use. Our school has recommended Berne and Levy but I’ve been told by many people NOT to use it. I don’t like it either. Here are some of the physiology textbooks that have been recommended to me by others…

Guyton
Costanzo (her full text)
Gangong
Sherwood

A textbook like Guyton is very large but I like learning out of larger textbooks that give a lot of explanation. The problem is I find I don’t have the time to take notes on a textbook like Guyton and study my course notes in depth. I find myself spending hours trying to figure out whether I should be studying my notes really hard, or focusing more on taking notes of a textbook like Guyton, or trying to do both (which takes me forever and often I cant get through all the material for a particular unit doing this)… its driving me crazy and wasting lots of my time. I am a hard worker and am willing to put in the time to do well in my course and score high on the USMLE’s but I find myself always wondering whether or not I’m taking the right approach to studying. Please help.